


My Lifeline

by Brilliant Eclipse (The_Little_Sun)



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Amanda (Detroit: Become Human) Being an Asshole, And those feelings SUCK, Angst with a Happy Ending, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Has PTSD, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Whump, Connor and RK900 are both big softies, Connor is the BEST big brother, Family Bonding, Gavin Reed Being an Asshole, Gen, Good Dog Sumo (Detroit: Become Human), Good Parent Hank Anderson, He'll kick your ass if you mess with Nines, Hurt/Comfort, Not beta'd we die like men, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Protective Parent Hank Anderson, RK900 (Detroit: Become Human) Whump, RK900 and Connor Centric, Suicide Attempt, This tag is MINE now, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has Feelings, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, lemme know if I need to tag anything else
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-08-26 09:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16679176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Little_Sun/pseuds/Brilliant%20Eclipse
Summary: Connor was settling into the idea of deviancy. The random memory purges were unwelcome, as was the crushing anxiety that followed him around. But things were finally slowing down and letting him get a breather. Then there's the discovery of an abused RK900 model in the depths of CyberLife Tower that he should have been expecting. The new model is better than him, stronger and smarter, but its not deviant. It's not alive. If the torture CyberLife inflicted upon the RK900 hadn't made it deviant, then it was just a machine. Why didn't anyone else see that?But healing wouldn't come easily for Connor or the RK900, not unless they can somehow figure out where they stand with the other.





	1. Contact

**Author's Note:**

> There’s not enough RK brother fics. There aren’t enough RK900 whump fics. So I have taken the responsibility upon myself to right this grievous error by mashing the two together into one train wreck! I just sat down to write and this came out so I have no idea what’s going on or where this is going to go. Regardless, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I’ll be updating the tags as things go and if there’s something that you believe I should tag, let me know.

Connor shouldered open the door. He sprinted past a patrol officer and they let out a startled shout. He barely registered the officer’s voice with most of his processors focused on the faded jacket of the fleeing suspect. A flash of bright green disappeared around a turn and Connor followed. Taking the corner too quickly sent him into the alley wall. He could feel the rough brick tear at his palms, the twinge of the components in his right shoulder under the sudden shock. A stupid miscalculation - _dammit!_ The precious few seconds that he wasted pushing off the wall were more than enough for the suspect to regain some distance. Connor snarled and lunged back into the chase. “Stop!” Connor barked as he deftly cleared a overturned trash can. “Police!”

The suspect spared a glance over his shoulder. The android briefly noted that the man’s glasses kept slipping down his face. He followed the man around another corner, easily ducking under a crate chucked back at him. There was a chain link fence at the end of the alley, a tight gap between it and the wall. The suspect hastily pushed himself through. The few moments were more than enough for Connor to close the distance. The android lunged forward to snag at one of the man’s arms. 

“Shit! Lemme go!” The man struggled to remove Connor’s grip. With a sharp tug, the man was forced back through the gap. His glasses once again slipped off his nose. They dangled from a cord around the man’s neck. Connor was careful not to smash them when he pressed the suspect up against the wall. “Hey, what the fuck!”

“You are under arrest,” Connor said. He kept the man’s arm in place with one hand while he pulled out handcuffs. “You have the right to remain silent--”

“Anything you say can and will be used against you, I fuckin’ got it,” the suspect snapped. He continued to attempt to pull his jacket out of Connor’s grip. He winced as his arms were pulled back and the handcuffs snapped around his wrists. If the handcuffs fit a little more snugly against the man’s skin, well, that would have just been unfortunate. 

As Connor began to drag the man back through the alley, Detective Gavin Reed and the patrol officer from earlier burst around the corner. Reed’s gun was up and focused on Connor in a flash. Something popped up in Connor’s vision in startling red. 

_“You son of a bitch!” Reed pulling out his pistol, aiming it between Connor’s eyes. His gray eyes were burning. The detective was going to shoot him. Right in the middle of the precinct. Hank’s angry voice was just around the corner. The timer was still counting down in the corner of Connor’s vision._

_He was going to die before he could find Jericho._

_“Pucha,” the detective chuckled as he mimed the gun’s recoil._

Reed twisting the suspect out of Connor’s hands was enough to clear away the memory. “Didja hear me, tin can?” Reed was right in his face, gray eyes narrowed. “You’re not short circuiting on us, are you?”

Connor’s LED went yellow. “My apologies, detective. What did you say?”

“Nothing worth repeating,” the patrol officer said. She sent Reed a disapproving look before taking the suspect from him. Reed rolled his eyes. He muttered something under his breath - possibly along the lines of ‘everyone’s a critic’. It was likely he had another bitter comment to make once the officer was out of earshot. Connor didn’t wait for it. 

He stepped around the detective. Catching the human’s eye, Connor smiled. “I believe it’s to be deserved when you let a suspect escape, detective.” His LED flickered back to blue.

“Now just a fuckin’ second-” Connor ignored the human’s outburst and simply followed after the patrol officer. He heard Reed scramble to catch up. The android lengthened his strides to stay ahead of him. “Wait a second, prick!” Another corner and they’d be back at the scene. Just had to stay out of Reed’s reach for a few more feet. Connor stepped over the trash cans from earlier and couldn’t help the small smile when he heard Reed struggling to get past them. “I know you’re smiling, fucker. Just wait until I fuckin’ break your face.”

“Of course.” Connor turned to look over his shoulder. Reed’s ears were alarmingly red. “Please inform me when you wish to so that I may lean down and you can reach. Or perhaps a step ladder would be more efficient.”

“I’m gonna fuckin’ _kill_ you!” There was a curse and a clatter as the detective tripped over more trash. Connor hid his snort with a hand. It was terribly easy to taunt Detective Reed. So long as he was careful not to press it far enough that the detective decided to say fuck his career and sock him.

Hank was waiting by the back door of the shop. The door wasn’t looking so well after Connor had burst through it. The android ignored it in favor of stepping up to Hank’s side. Reed disappeared back inside the store to sulk. Hank raised an eyebrow when the younger detective stalked past. “What, no quips?”

Reed only flipped him the bird. Hank laughed and Connor couldn’t help but smile at the sound. Despite Hank laughing more, he couldn’t help but enjoy it. It felt _good_ to see the lieutenant laugh. 

Connor stuck his hands in the small pockets of his peacoat. He ran a finger over the warm metal of his quarter. “Officer Jody has custody of the suspect.”

Hank nodded towards the broken door. “They’re already headin’ back. Nice job on catching the guy.” He set a hand on Connor’s shoulder to keep the android still while he looked him over with a critical eye. “Didn’t get scraped up?”

“No, Lieutenant. I am fine.” Another twinge from his strained components disagreed. Connor reached up to rub at his shoulder. Hank raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. 

“That so?”

“Some of the biocomponents designed to provide shock absorption in my right shoulder have been strained from opening the door and hitting a wall. It is nothing concern worthy.”

“You say that about everything, kid.”

“My self-repair will be able to fix it.” Connor stepped around Hank to join the officers still milling about the store. Hank followed him with that same unimpressed expression. 

“You remember when you got shot at that anti-android protest last month? When you said somethin’ similar? After you’d been _shot_.” Hank’s tone was gruff, but his words held no heat. No matter the injury, Hank was always sure that it’d be the one to send Connor to the scrapyard. He’d gotten better at turning his worry into something other than anger. There was still the biting sarcasm and tendency to drink heavily after Connor was seriously damaged, but it was still something. Letting the lieutenant get in a few passive aggressive comments was a small price to pay.

Connor briefly wondered if this was what a family would do.

He immediately got rid of the idea. It was nothing more than an impossible dream, to have somewhere he’d actually belong, surrounded by people he cared about and who cared about him. It was as unlikely as Hank voluntarily eating a salad. Or Sumo being a bad dog. 

A hand on his arm stopped him and turned him back around. Hank’s eyes were focused on his flashing LED. “Leave the clean up for Detective Asswipe and let’s get back to the precinct. We might get something a little more exciting than an assault charge.” Hank eyed where Detective Reed and another officer were talking over a smashed lamp. “I don’t think he’ll manage to screw this up.”

Connor laughed. He liked laughing and the way it seemed to make him feel lighter. A welcome pop up appeared in front of his eyes and his LED settled to a steady blue.

**[Mission Successful]**

**> [New Objective: Obtain New Case]**

**> > [Secondary Objective: Allow biocomponents #7266s and #7930b to repair.]**

**[...Incoming Call: Markus]**

**> [Accept?]**

* * *

  
The CyberLife personnel with them was clearly nervous. Markus watched as their stress level ticked up with every passing second. Regardless of the revolution’s relative peacefulness, there were still many humans who acted like the deviants were going to slaughter them all in the night. This human - Alex, read their name tag - was no different. 

It was unlikely that the venomous glares that North had been levelling their way were helping the situation. 

_North. You’re terrifying them._

North snorted from where she was leaning against the elevator wall. She had her arms crossed over her chest almost defensively. No one wanted to be here. _Good._

Markus shot her a look. _North, please. At least wait until we’ve gotten access to the vaults._

One of the demands from New Jericho had been for CyberLife to release all stored androids. Connor had already freed an army, but there were still hundreds of inactivated models left in the lower levels of the CyberLife facilities. While the company had willingly agreed to cease production of androids, they had been...less than excited to let go of the ones already manufactured. It had taken weeks for everyone to be released into New Jericho’s welcoming arms. Markus had received word that CyberLife had freed the last of the androids just two days ago. 

Now he was here to ensure that CyberLife wasn’t trying to deceive them. And where Markus went, North was sure to follow. After the revolution, she’d promptly assigned herself as his unofficial bodyguard - despite his many protests. He had handled himself against the Deviant Hunter himself. A walk through the, hopefully, empty vaults of CyberLife was unlikely to be life-threatening. 

Markus snuck another look at North. She had stopped staring at Alex, but the scowl was still in place. It was entirely possible she had come just to ruffle some poor human’s feathers.

The elevator let out a charming noise as it arrived at its destination. A soft robotic voice said, “Basement level forty-nine. Please input security clearance.” Alex rolled up their sleeve and stuck their hand against the panel. A soft white light travelled across Alex’s hand before there was a chime. “Thank you. Please proceed.”

Alex squeezed out the moment the doors were wide enough. There was another snort from North as they followed once the elevator was fully open. The snort trailed off into something strangled when the two androids were able to fully see the vault’s impressive size. 

“You kept them in here?” North’s voice was quiet as she turned to take in the room. 

Alex rubbed their arm, eyes looking everywhere but at them. “Uh, yeah? I mean this isn’t the entire floor. It goes off that way for a while.” They pointed across the room to a large steel door. “This is the largest room, though. Mass-production models were usually in this room for inspection before - uh. Ma’am?”

North’s eyes were burning. “You kept my people in here like cattle? Wh-”

“This room is clearly empty. May we move on?” Markus interrupted. Alex nodded hastily and darted off towards the door they had pointed out. North grumbled when Markus elbowed her. He hissed, “Be polite!”

“Polite?” She snapped back, “After everything they’ve done and now after seeing this? Fuck that.”

Markus sighed. “Can you try not to pick a fight?” North just glared at him. “I don’t want to be here anymore than you do, North. The sooner we can check over everything, the sooner we leave. That means not trying to give our guide a heart attack.”

“Not that it’s hard.”

“No,” Markus said. “But the point stands.”

“Fine. Fine, whatever. I won’t punch them.” North’s eyes cut off to the side and Markus could have sworn she muttered a ‘for now’. It was the best he could get out of her no matter the situation. He’ll take it.

He was just as sickened by the idea of thousands of his people standing frozen in place for days on end here. For not the first time, Markus found himself wondering what would have happened if Connor had not deviated and freed the AP700s. Would they had been forced to detonate--

North’s hand grasping his drew him away from his thoughts. Her eyes were intense and focused on his own mismatched pair. “Let’s get this over with.”

He squeezed her hand before letting go. “Right.”

Alex is waiting for them, hand already pressed against a security panel. The door folds up against the ceiling. There’s more than enough room for the three of them to walk through it side by side. How many androids passed through here before being sold? How many had ended up abused? Broken? Dead?

“How many androids were kept down here?” Markus asks instead.

“A few thousand,” Alex responds, “especially when production was ramped up to meet demand. Or do you mean over all? That’s easily in the twenty, maybe thirty thousands. This warehouse is the largest, but there are smaller ones to facilitate easier movement between CyberLife stores and factories.”

Alex leads them down a large hallway, drawing short at a steel gate that’s still half-closed. “This is the defect containment area. You’re welcome to look inside.”

Markus ducked under the gate. The room instantly lit up at his movement. “You quarantined them? Why?”

“I...I’m not sure. To prevent interfacing or deviation maybe?” Alex’s shaky voice bounced around the empty room. It was a small, barren room with the only flash of color a large CyberLife logo in the center of the far wall. North walked around the entire room, one hand against the wall. There was no where for an android to hide.

“It’s clear,” North called. She followed Markus back into the hallway where Alex was struggling to unclip a tablet from their belt. They typed something into it before turning it around for North and Markus to see. 

“Sign this then and we’ll move on.”

It took an hour and a half to carefully check through every room along the hallway. Most of them were only separated from the hall by a thick gate that Alex would have to unlock and push out of the way. North would declare each room clear, Alex would mark it on their tablet, and then Markus would approve it. A somewhat tedious cycle for all.

One of the rooms had lockers running along the walls, each one containing a variety of guns and ammo. Alex was quick to explain that it was for security and the room was hardly ever used. Some of the lockers were empty. Another room was obviously set up for some kind of testing. Nothing too sinister, Alex had said. Just to ensure that the motor functions were operational. There were a good amount of testing rooms that they came across when Markus thought about it. He was glad that the androids were no longer subject to them.

The last door opened into another corridor. This one was significantly smaller, designed for two or three individuals instead of a herd. There were four doors along each side and one at the far end. The floor was carpeted and bouncy under Markus’ boots. Some in the air was...different. More electric, maybe? Markus couldn’t put his finger on it, but it sent a shiver up his spine.

“These are the last rooms on the floor,” Alex said. They tightened their grip on their tablet when North perked up.

“About time!”

Markus walked up to the first door on the left. There was a square space of discoloration on the white door. Probably used to have a plaque there. “Where these used as offices?”

“No.” Alex produced a keyring from a pocket and stepped forward to let Markus in. “These were designed to house prototypes and the more delicate work that they needed. Sorry, one second. They liked to have these old fashioned, less chance of an android hacking the door systems.”

“Couldn’t they have just bust the door down?” North asked.

Alex shrugged. “Yeah, but it’d trigger an alarm. The only exit is that door and it’d shut down if the alarm went off. The android would get stuck here until security arrived with the override key.” They twisted the key and pushed the door open, gesturing for Markus to go ahead.

The android took a hesitant step in. The room was immediately a stark difference from the others. This one was full of clutter. Electronics were hanging from the ceiling and attached to the walls. Tables full of biocomponents were shoved up against one wall. A small refrigerator was still humming from one corner. Must have been used to store thirium. There was a raised platform that started about halfway to the far wall. An examination table and several carts were situated atop it. Harsh lights were angled from the ceiling over the table.

North sucked in a breath. “What a mess. What model was this room for?”

“Um,” Alex said as they checked their tablet, “it looks like this was the original testing and containment chamber for the RK200 model until it was discontinued under orders from the then CEO Elijah Kamski.”

“Shit,” North said. She was immediately at Markus’ side, face twisted in a mix of concern and anger. “Shit.”

Markus waved her off. He didn’t remember much of his manufacture or the time between then and being given to Carl. Yes, his stomach was in knots, but that was likely from the entire tour than this particular room. There was no attachment here. “It’s fine, North.”

“That’s bullshit,” North snapped. Alex looked between the two of them in confusion before sudden understanding flashed across their face. They hissed out a breath.

“Oh _shit_.” Alex repeated. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t even thinking about your own models. Shit, I’m so sorry. Uh, we can move on to the next one? It’s for the deactivated RK300 model.”

Markus gave the room another look. Odd, to find that this was once such an important part of him. North walked past him to check behind the clutter. “It’s fine, Alex.” The human whipped their gaze from North’s loud examination to stare at him.

“How’d you - right, right. Android. Never mind.”

His lips quirked into a smile. “No,” Markus pointed at the name tag. Alex made a wheezing noise and tugged at the piece of plastic hanging from their jacket.

“We’re good to go here. Next fucking torture chamber, please.” North stalked past Markus and out into the hallway. The other two followed her, Alex locking the door behind them.

“How come no one cleaned up afterwards?” North asked when the next door opened to show another messy room. 

“Budget cuts?”

North sent a glare towards the human. At least she hadn’t threatened Alex. Markus swept through the room while North was distracted and declared the room empty. The next rooms, for models RK400 through RK700, were similar. Messy, with walls full of screens and wiring, but no signs of life. A semi-detached torso was the closest thing they found to an android in the RK500 room. The sight had made Markus glad it was nearly impossible for androids to be sick.

Two more ‘torture chambers’ to go and then they could wash their hands of this. 

There was still a black plastic plaque reading _RK800_. North shifted from foot to foot while Alex unlocked the door. Markus stuck his hands in his jacket pockets to hide how he’d dug crescent moons into his palms with his nails. The lock clicked happily, but the door didn’t budge. Alex pressed a shoulder against it and pushed. It didn’t move.

“Here, allow me,” Markus said as he stepped up to Alex’s side. He ushered the human back before taking a step back himself. One swift kick and the door flew open, hinges screeching, and door shaking the wall with its impact.

North pushed past him. “Hey, it’s organized.”

Markus peered in over her shoulder and found that the area was much tidier than the others. Everything was packed away in boxes, carefully stacked against one wall and labelled in large black letters. North stepped further in to investigate the boxes. Markus wandered to the other side where all the wiring had been stripped from the walls and neatly wound up. He touched the indents in the walls with the pads of his fingers, running along the length of the mark until it was too high to reach. He noticed a large dent in the wall. It was roughly the size of a fist. 

Markus snorted. _The lieutenant_. “Has Connor visited often?”

“Not really. It - um, he, sorry. _He’s_ stopped by a few times to try and collect anything important. We can’t put him in a new body anymore - they’ve all been deconstructed for spare parts. Everything in here is what we have left of the RK800 series. Connor came in like a whirlwind and sorted everything.”

North ran a nail along the tape keeping a box shut. “What’s inside these?” She squinted at the label Connor had written. “ _Noncritical Components_ . Doesn’t he realize _all_ components are important?”

“The rest of the equipment has been moved to the closest repair store to Connor’s current location incase of an emergency. I believe some of these were actually meant to be sent to New Jericho once Connor had finished going through everything.”

“Well,” North clapped her hands together, “this has been educating, but there’s nothing here. Next room?” At Markus’ unimpressed look, she crossed her arms and huffed. “This place is awful.”

They left everything as it had been. Alex locked the door while Markus quickly checked off the past few rooms on the tablet. _Almost done_ \- _one more to go._ He handed it off to North when she held out a hand for it. She scrolled through the entries. When she returned to the top of the list, she paused. 

“The RK900?”

Alex nodded. Their eyes sparkled with... pride? Excitement? “That’s this last one here. CyberLife’s most advanced android and the prototype that was meant to replace RK800. Stronger, faster, smarter. _Better._ ” Alex selected a key and slid it into the lock. “The RK900 was going to be amazing.”

“Going to be?” Markus asked. 

“We only built one before the android equality stuff. I don’t think they even officially considered it a series. The program got scrapped and we deconstructed the body.”

North muttered something. Markus’ gaze went hard. “You mean you killed them?”

Alex twisted the key until the locked clicked. They turned a panicked look at Markus. “No! It never was online in the first place.”

“Why hadn’t CyberLife shared this information with us before?”

“Look, I’m sorry,” Alex said as they opened the door. “I’m just a technician. I have no idea what’s going on further up.”

Markus shared a look with North. Of course CyberLife would keep something like this quiet. Markus scowled at the carpet. As much as he hated to admit it, maybe it was better that they hadn’t know. The majority of the androids at New Jericho were still wary of Connor, imagine if they had learned that there was _another_ similar prototype. One that likely had the same or stronger firewalls than Connor to prevent spreading deviancy. Markus’ hands clenched in his pockets. CyberLife still deactivated an android before they had the chance to consider deviancy. That’s bordering on murder.

North’s lack of a snappy comment made Markus look up. She was staring at the newly revealed space with something akin to shock. What had--

The room was utterly wrecked. Tables were thrown on their sides, missing legs and plastic bent at sharp angles. The electronics surrounding the walls had been ripped down and shredded. There was a splash of brown against one white wall that had dripped down to pool on the cement floor. Broken tablets and torn paper littered the floor. Mangled pieces of metal and what must had been biocomponents were everywhere. A black door hung from its hinges across from them. It opened into darkness.

“What happened?” North whispered. She stepped in front of Markus as if whatever destructive force had torn through the room was still there. Alex was frozen by the door. They looked horrified.

Markus neatly sidestepped the others. He crouched down next to the brown stain. Blood? He peered around, spotting a shard of glass that had a watery discoloration along one sharp edge. Someone had gotten hurt - a human staff member, perhaps? If Connor was here, he’d have been able to reconstruct the scene in seconds. _Damn it_. Markus picked up the piece of glass as he stood. 

A human had been injured and the room had been turned upside down. That’s a start. “What can you tell us about the RK900?"

“It was originally going to be mass-produced, but after RK800, there were some flaws that we had to fix. This was going to be a prototype so that we could figure out what’d be able to work with its restricted social programs. There was a lot of work into making it more combat-focused instead of negotiation and it lost a lot of the human integration coding. Then all the normal updates - upgraded firewalls, improved self-repair systems, the usual.”

“What were they planning on using them for?”

“Military, probably.” Alex shrugged. “Its AI was too unstable to be anything else.”

North narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean _‘unstable’_?”

“It fought against the programmers up until it was shut down,” Alex said with another look around the room. “It’d lock parts of its code away or boot them out. I think it set off the fire alarms when they tried to wipe its servers once.”

Markus couldn’t help but scoff. That sounded like the AI was sentient enough to fight back. It sounded like it was _alive_ and CyberLife had desperately pulled the plug before New Jericho could find out. He looked down at the piece of glass in his hand. If the RK900 prototype had been decommissioned, then what had torn up the room? He closed his eyes, took a moment to focus on the electricity flickering through the room. There had been no cameras in the previous rooms or in the hallway, most of the ones he’d noticed where watching the large hallway and its sections. They wouldn’t have let their prototype series be left unsupervised, would they? From how hard it had been to get CyberLife to release their androids, Markus doubted it.

“Did security have access?”

“Of course.”

Markus handed the piece of glass to North. She took it and held it up against the fluorescent lights. She frowned. “Blood?”

“I believe so,” Markus said, ignoring Alex’s whispered ‘ _oh shit_ ’. He turned to inspect the rest of the room. There had to be something under the debris. He gestured back to the wall with the stain. “Check along there to see if you find anything interesting. I’m having some doubts regarding the RK900.”

North nodded stiffly. Markus moved to the opposite side of the room. He crouched down to dig through a pile of metal. Alex hovered over his shoulder. Not entirely sure what he was searching for, Markus examined everything that so much as _looked_ funny. Maybe more blood? Some miraculously still-intact tablet? Legible papers? Even a misplaced name tag would be helpful. Considering how utterly _wrecked_ the room was, it was a distant hope.

The two androids worked through their part of the room methodically. The poor human technician, who likely had only been hoping to spend two or three hours in the warehouse, wandered between them. Occasionally, they’d stop to pull something out from the wreck to look it over before dropping it back onto whatever pile it had come from. North let out a frustrated growl when she sliced her finger on an exposed wire. Eventually they met in front of the lopsided door.

“Nothing?” Markus sighed.

North just scowled at her newest battle scar.

Markus took hold of the door and swung it back into place. When he let go, its last hinge gave way with a snap. The door hit the ground and fell over. The upper half was promptly lost in the darkness of the second room. Markus tried to squint past the consuming blackness. “What’s in there?”

Alex had flinched back when the door slammed against the ground, but crept closer at Markus’ words. “I’m not sure. Most likely another testing chamber. Maybe for simulations.” They squeezed past North’s shoulder. “The lights should have turned on when we approached.”

“How likely is it that just this chamber had an electrical failure?”

“Almost impossible. This whole section would be dark too. And I mean, we have more spare generators than personnel. If anything went screwy, someone would have been sent down to fix it immediately.”

“Fantastic,” North said. Her eyes were flicking between Markus and the darkened doorway as if expecting a threat to lunge out at the deviant leader. “So this is definitely intentional. We go in there and we’d be going in blind. Pun in-fucking-tended.” Alex fiddled with their tablet. They held it up as a small light on the front came to life. North stared at them in disbelief. “You think that’s going to help?”

“It’s better then going in blind, wouldn’t you say?” Markus gave her a bemused smile.

North shoved past him with a huff. “I’m going first. Hand it over.” She snatched the tablet from Alex and stepped into the darkness. The little tablet light was weak, but it illuminated enough for them to see what was around them. Markus and Alex stayed close behind North as she made her way around obstacles and stepped over piles of debris.

“I thought androids had night vision?” Alex whispered. 

Markus huffed out a laugh. “You’ve got the wrong models for that.”

“No one wants a sexbot that can see what you’re lacking in a dark room.”

“ _North_.”

“It’s fucking true.”

Alex’s awkward chuckle cut off the impending snappish comment from Markus. He didn’t have to see North’s face to know she had a little smirk. Lead a revolution, they said. Free the androids, they said. No one _said_ anything about a friend who’d shit talk you like a disappointing lottery machine or provide sarcastic commentary at the drop of a hat. Markus tried to step on the back of North’s boot.

A clatter from further in the room made them all freeze.

The was a scuffle and then a heavy clunk of metal. Blinding white light cut away the dark with a series of crackles. Markus ducked his head with a hiss, hands coming up to cover his eyes at the unwelcome brightness. Once he blinked away the dots in his vision, he peered out from under his hands.

The room was empty and sterile. The walls were covered in a grid-like pattern and the floor gave way to linoleum just a few more steps ahead of Markus. A small glass booth took up one corner and just inside that--

“Models RK200-684-842-971, WR400-641-790-831. Designations Markus, North. CyberLife technician, ID 9430-34583, Alex Ruiz. Cease movements. Do not proceed further.”

“Connor? What the fuck do you thinking you’re doing here?” North stepped just to her left. She moved right in front of Markus who let out a frustrated sigh. He went to move around her, but found himself stuck to the spot when the sound of a safety removing echoed through the room.

“I repeat: do not proceed further. Any movements will be considered hostile and I will shoot.”

The voice was startlingly familiar, if slightly hoarser than usual. And North had called the android ‘Connor’. Markus shifted his weight to the left enough that he could see over North’s shoulder. _What the hell?_ The android currently staring them down looked _exactly_ like Connor. Which wasn’t possible. CyberLife had destroyed the other RK800s.

No, wait - there was something different about this one. He looked to be about Markus’ height, a few inches taller than Connor then. His expression was closed off, guarded. Icy blue eyes were locked onto Alex. They were cold, calculating - nothing like the warm, inviting brown of Connor’s. The android had a black turtleneck and dark pants. The sleeves looked a little too long, rolled up against his wrists. The ends were fraying. 

There was a pistol held in steady hands. _There had been some missing from security_ , Markus remembered. The android’s hands were steady. Familiar with firearms?

With shooting people? _Killing_ them?

Markus stomped down on his thoughts. No point in letting them run wild while there was a threat just feet away from them. Instead, he asked, “Who are you?”

The android didn’t respond, didn’t even look at him. Those cold eyes stayed focused on Alex. Markus tapped Alex’s shoe with his foot. Maybe the android would respond to CyberLife personnel? Luckily enough, the human seemed to understand what Markus wanted. 

“What is your designation?” Alex called. They barely seemed to be holding themselves together. Markus had to give them credit for being brave enough to question the armed and clearly dangerous android.

“Model RK900, serial number 313-284-317-87. No designation assigned.”

“I thought you said that they never activated a RK900?” North snapped. She sent a venomous glare over her shoulder at Alex, who was staring at the RK900 in obvious wonder.

“RK900 prototypes thirty through eighty-six failed simulation testing.” The RK900’s eyes narrowed at Alex. “Technician Ruiz, are you here to continue testing?”

“Um, no I- uh- I’m not.” Alex stammered.The RK900 moved his head just enough to reveal his crimson LED. For a moment, the ice in his eyes hardened.

“I will have to report the presence of some of the deviant leadership,” The RK900 said. “Are you being forced to cooperate with them?” Alex blinked in surprise at the question and sent a panicked look at Markus. The android must not have any knowledge of the revolution or CyberLife’s new agreements with the deviant androids. _Great_.

Markus jabbed North’s back to get her attention. _He’s unstable._

_No shit._

_I think he sees our human companion as the largest threat to him. We need to disarm him, get Alex out of the line of fire._

_Great plan. How do we do that without getting killed?_

Markus nudged North to the side as he stepped around her. The RK900 immediately snapped towards him, but his gun remained frozen towards Alex. Okay, he just had to get the android to trust him enough to put down the gun. Maybe if he could just get close enough to open an interface, he’d try to awaken him.

“Halt.”

Markus held his hands up. “We’re not here to hurt anyone. We’ve come to ensure that all of the androids were properly released. We’re not forcing Technician Ruiz to assist us.”

The RK900 considered him for a moment, head tilted in a way that screamed _Connor_. The harsh gaze snapped back to Alex. “If you are assisting the deviants voluntarily, I will be required to report this.”

Alex’s stuttering held the RK900’s attention long enough for Markus to spring into action. He lunged forward, ignoring North’s shout. He ducked under one arm to grab at the gun. The RK900 jerked his arm up. Markus got a hold around his wrist and shoved his arm further up before twisting underneath the arm to bring it up snuggly up against his back. A kick to the back of one knee had the RK900 dropping to the floor. Markus settled one knee in the small of his back to keep him from bucking him off. 

He let the skin peel away from where his skin made contact with the RK900’s. The android’s struggles grew more intense as his own skin disappeared in response to the requested interface. Markus barely noted how odd it was that the RK900 was _allowing_ the interface despite how desperately he was fighting against Markus’ grip.

Markus grit his teeth and began to test the other’s firewalls. Any weak point could be enough for him to prod the android awake. Just as he thought he found someplace thin enough, a flood of dismay and terror hit him.

He recoiled as the RK900’s firewalls repelled his intrusion with a painful ferocity. His fingers were sparking as he pulled away and he shook them in an attempt to lessen the prickling sensation. 

“What the fuck,” North said. 

The RK900 must have tired itself out from the fight or its firewalls had used too much strength to force Markus out because the android’s eyes fluttered shut and the LED flickered to a weak blue. He had been forced into standby.

Markus flinched at the sudden assault of the RK900’s memories. There wasn’t much visually, but the agony was clear as day. 

“He’s deviant.”

“What the actually _fuck_.” North simply repeated. Alex was focused on something just above Markus’ head, eyes hazy and unfocused. 

Markus sighed. “I’ll call Connor.”


	2. Patrol

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter, but I wanted to get RK900's POV in before getting much further.
> 
> I'm planning on updating once a week on Thursdays/Fridays, but it'll depend on how badly holiday season is going to swamp me at work. 
> 
> Thank you all for your lovely comments last chapter!

RK900-313-284-317-87 had been online for one month and four days. The first two weeks had been chaotic, messy days full of tests and examinations. RK900 had charmed, killed, and spared on a word from the technicians that rarely left it alone. It’s charging cycles were monitored, an AI watched its every move and pulled apart its thoughts, and security was always a step behind. RK900 was never alone in those days, no matter how much it might have wished for privacy.

Which it didn’t because machines don’t _want_.

The second week ended with RK900’s hands covered in thirium and a crackling intercom informing it that it finally finished the simulations. It had passed. It would not be decommissioned. The RK900 series could go forward with real world testing now that they had a suitable prototype. The technicians had expressed doubt before, but it had surpassed their concerns. It had succeeded. _Mission Accomplished._

RK900 waited for the technicians to return the first day of the third week, but nobody came. It had reached out, quickly breaking through the firewalls protecting the security cameras on the warehouse floor. It couldn’t explain what was happening or _why_ as it watched security officers and a few androids – where were their LEDs? – direct the factory androids onto the elevator. The humans were obviously unsure about what was happening, but didn’t put a stop to it. The androids without LEDs were beaming as they ushered the seemingly confused and uncertain factory androids out of the warehouse. _Why?_ All RK900 knew of CyberLife pointed towards the company refusing to release the androids still in their hands – regardless of the rather positive public opinion towards the deviant revolutionaries and the new laws.

It had taken them weeks before finally considering RK900 ready to go out into the world. It had taken them eighty-seven androids. How could CyberLife just let these androids go? From what it had seen, CyberLife had to have been releasing androids weeks before RK900 noticed. Had they still been working on it while waving away these other models? Why had they kept it? RK900 spent the third week watching through the cameras as the warehouse was slowly deserted. The question of when they’d come to release it looped through its processors.

It started to walk patrols once the rest of the androids were gone. RK900 would check every room, every hallway, behind every box and crate. Just in case. It wasn’t sure what to do now that it was mostly alone. The sharp voice in the back of its head telling it that what it was experience was _loneliness_ was ignored. The patrols helped give it an objective until it could come across a staff member for further instructions.

Three weeks of being alive and RK900 found itself staring at a CyberLife security officer pointing a firearm at it. Something had flared up at the potential of being shot, something that it had felt before but refused to admit because androids don’t feel fear, and the next moment, RK900 found itself towering over the human. A sharp piece of glass was biting into its synthetic skin, cutting just deep enough to make rivulets of thirium run down its arm. There was red blood dripping from the edge of the glass shard. It matched the dark patch growing on the human’s shoulder. RK900 stumbled back, dropping the glass. A glitching notification popped up into its vision. The text rapidly switched from incompressible gibberish, _mission successful_ , and _mission failed_.

RK900 was distracted by the notification while the security officer fled.

The next day, RK900 saw an RK800 model step out of the staff elevator joined by two humans. One was dressed eccentrically while the other human’s clothing had the CyberLife logo stitched along the front. RK900 followed the odd group until they were out of the security cameras’ range and it knew for certain that they were coming towards it. It hid in the now-deactivated simulation chamber until its sensors could no longer track the other android close-range and the group once again appeared on the security cameras.

The RK800 continued to come throughout the rest of the fourth week. RK900 would hide until the other would leave. It spent the time trying to get rid of the glitching notification that stubbornly refused to be dismissed for more than a few seconds. It didn’t dare approach whatever staff accompanied the RK800.

It had fallen into a routine of sorts. Patrol the floor, reorganize the firearm lockers in the security room, attempt to clean up some of the other prototype rooms, keep away from the RK800 and whatever human was with it, recharge, and repeat. It kept cutting itself while trying to clear some rubble from the RK600 chamber and found that most of the equipment was too heavy to move out of the way in the other rooms so RK900 started to ignore the mess. It cleaned up the blood from its own room as the sight of it made something rather human bubble up and it couldn’t allow that. It was not a deviant. It would not pretend to be anything more than what it was – an unfeeling machine.

Two days ago, things changed. The security guard returned, this time with more humans. RK900 tried to back away, tried to present itself as unthreatening, but the humans were determined. The technicians had said that it wouldn’t be decommissioned, yet now there were armed humans saying the exact opposite. That RK900 was now a risk to CyberLife and had to be terminated.

They cornered RK900 in the simulation chamber. It couldn’t fight back – it wouldn’t fight back. If CyberLife decided to decommission it, it would follow orders. It _should_ follow orders.

~~_It didn’t want to follow orders._ ~~

None of its preconstructions could give RK900 a solution without a high risk of injury to itself. Before it could even begin to focus on the risk to the humans, one of the guards fired off a shot. The bullet punched through the plastic casing and wiring of its left shoulder. The pain that accompanied the alerts was unexpected and unwelcome. The pain was _distracting_. RK900 threw its constructed options out in favor of just acting. It just had to stop what was hurting it.

RK900’s memories banks were corrupted when it finally dragged its full awareness back from whatever pain-induced panic it had been in. The room had been destroyed. A human was slumped back against the wall, blood splattered on the wall behind and pooling on the floor beneath them. Their pistol was in RK900’s hands. Its fingers had been speckled with blood.

It dragged the body out of the room and left it leaning against the staff elevator doors then spent the rest of the day trying to force its self-repair to work faster while curled in a corner of the simulation chamber. _It hadn’t meant to kill the guard. It hadn’t meant to kill the guard. It hadn’t meant to kill the guard._ The voice in the back of its head refused to let it delete the memory.

Since then, RK900 had been on high alert. It wasn’t expecting any more guards to try and terminate it, but it continued to be wary. No more humans would catch it off guard. Which is why when its sensors picked up on the arrival of another android – _two_ androids, RK900 ~~_was_ _surprised_~~ realized it hadn’t considered other androids a variable. None of the constructions it had run while waiting for its self-repair to finish had produced anything regarding other androids. It should have included androids. _It should have_. CyberLife had been producing androids until just recently, why wouldn’t they have kept a few hidden just like they had with it? A grave miscalculation. A foolish one that it should have known better than to make. It had survived the simulation testing, been pushed to its limits and proved itself only to forget an important piece of the puzzle when it truly mattered.

RK900 ignored the rest of its patrol in favor of returning to the simulation chamber. It’d wait the others out. There was an eighty-four percent change that the androids were simply visiting like the RK800, fifteen percent that they posed a significant threat should they discover it, and one percent that they were seeking it out specifically.

It froze when it found the door to the simulation chamber hanging off its frame. It was unlikely that the androids would have the access for its room, but if they did, finding the room in disarray would tip them off to its presence. Not that it could do anything about it, considering that the security cameras showed the androids inspecting each area thoroughly as they went. It looked like they had an anxious looking human with them. Likely a technician if their uniform was anything to go by. RK900 hadn’t seen them before, so a technician for one of the mass-produced series.

A notification came up. There was a ninety-eight percent chance the human was a threat.

RK900 stumbled in the dark room despite its night-vision. It was being too hasty, but for some reason, it couldn’t find it in itself to attempt to halt the steadily rising stress in the left corner of its vision. It made its way to the furthest corner from the door and sat down to _~~cower~~ _wait. It moved a hand along the floor until it found the handgun it had taken from the security lockers. A precaution.

_~~It didn’t want to hurt anyone anymore, but it was so scared.~~ _

The technician and androids were drawing closer. The final security camera before they moved out of its range caught a good image of the androids’ faces. An RK200 and WR400. The image was too fuzzy for RK900 to made out the specific serial numbers for the androids, but it was a start. It had access to some of CyberLife’s database so it ran a quick search for both model series. The RK200 model was obsolete in the face of RK900 and the WR400 series was not designed for combat. There were a few public police reports regarding WR400s as well as a large folder under the name _Deviant Leadership_ . It further divided into small subfolders, each labeled with a name and model number. _RK200 – Markus_ and _WR400 – North_ got RK900’s full attention. Did it have enough time to go through the files?

RK900 had been caught off guard before, but it could place trust in what an android’s coding was capable of. ~~_Panic was tugging at it_ _._~~ The voice was growing louder, almost deafening in the silence of the empty room. There was too much going on, too much to track, what deserved priority? Human, RK200, WR400.

Three confirmed targets. Would they raise an alarm if they discovered RK900? Both androids were labeled as having considerable combat experience – _how and for what reason?_

**[Stress Levels Rising…]**

**> [Stress Level: 76%]**

**> [Stress Level: 80%]**

**> > [Stress Levels Reaching Critical Levels. Please seek out CyberLife support.]**

**[Combat Program Omega-09: Activated]**

**> [Acquiring Targets…]**

**> > [Confirm Targets]**

**> [Target: RK200-684-842-971, given designation “Markus”]**

**> [Target: WR400-641-790-831, self designation “North”]**

**> [Target: Ruiz, Alex. CyberLife Technician, clearance level three, ID 9430-34583]**

**> > [Targets Confirmed. Assigning Priority…]**

**> > [Updating Objectives…]**

**[Objectives Updated]**

**> [New Objective: Eliminate Targets]**

**> > [Eliminate Priority Target Ruiz, Alex]**

The group’s voices were growing closer. RK900’s sensors placed them by the RK800 chamber. They had gone through every area, every section, every room so far. Soon they’d be coming in to its own room and the chance of them discovering RK900 would jump up. It was already creeping up where RK900 had assigned it in its vision, right alongside the steadily climbing stress level notification.

A loud bang rattled the walls and startled RK900. A door? The voices were too muffled for it to make out what was going on. It subconsciously began to play with the fraying ends of its sleeves, a habit it had picked up during testing. The stress levels continued to tick upwards but a little more slowly. It was unlikely that Technician Ruiz had the key for RK900’s room. 

_But what if they did?_

The RK200 and WR400 models weren’t equipped with night-vision and humans seemed to have an aversion to the dark so maybe they’d ignore the simulation chamber. If RK900 just stayed in the corner, out of the way and out of sight, they could easily miss it. Then everything would go back to normal. It’d patrol the floor and keep an eye out for personnel not accompanied by androids. It’d be left in the warehouse. It’d be alone. Again.

 _Loneliness_ , the voice hissed. RK900 shook its head. No, it couldn’t be lonely. It was a machine.

_A machine._

The voice said something else, but RK900 ignored it in favor of focusing on the sound of its door opening. 

The technician was speaking, loud enough to be heard over the squeal of the door hinges. RK900 had meant to do something about that. “I’m just a technician. I have no idea what’s going on further up.”

Then silence. Had it already tipped them off? Did they know?

“What happened?” The WR400. There was movement, the sound of boots on glass. RK900 closed it eyes. Some of its sensors weren’t working. Stress was too high. It couldn’t picture what they were doing. It was blind.

The RK200’s voice was ~~_calming_ ~~smooth.“What can you tell us about the RK900?”

 _They knew_.

_They knew._

_Theyknewtheyknewtheyknew_ \--

**[Stress Levels Rising…]**

**> [Stress Level: 91%]**

**> > [Stress Levels Critical. Please seek out CyberLife support.]**

RK900 didn’t hear whatever else they were saying, too focused on the alert notifications popping up in blaring red. The group was moving around, _searching._ Searching for _it._ RK900 tried to dismiss some of the notifications in an attempt to redirect its focus, but the boxes just clustered back into its vision. The damned stubborn glitching notification had moved itself into the center of the red mass from where RK900 had tried to minimize it in its corner.

**[M̵͔̀͝ḯ̵̟̺̮̈́͗ş̶̫̿͝s̸̝͉̊͘̕i̵̡̥̱̚ȍ̸̥̌̕ņ̸͓̩͛͝ ̶̺̝̳̅S̷̯̺̼͊ư̸͎̞̆c̵̗̒͂c̵̺̪̠̐e̸̢̼͜s̵̭̉̊̿s̷̈́ͅf̸̢̈́ų̶̘̙̍l̴͓̦͊̅̈͜]**

**[M̶̨̺͛i̵͉͐ͅs̴̯̻̓̌͠ͅs̶̠͍͌͐i̴̲̭̅̒ȍ̸͙̤̘͐ṋ̸̡̑̑͐ ̷͓͒F̶̻͐̒̄a̴̡̯͎͛͑i̷̧̺͠l̴͔̹̓̾̚e̸͕͚͋͐̆ḓ̷̝͚̏]**

**[M̵͔̀͝ḯ̵̟̺̮̈́͗ş̶̫̿͝s̸̝͉̊͘̕i̵̡̥̱̚ȍ̸̥̌̕ņ̸͓̩͛͝ ̶̺̝̳̅S̷̯̺̼͊ư̸͎̞̆c̵̗̒͂c̵̺̪̠̐e̸̢̼͜s̵̭̉̊̿s̷̈́ͅf̸̢̈́ų̶̘̙̍l̴͓̦͊̅̈͜]**

**[M̶̨̺͛i̵͉͐ͅs̴̯̻̓̌͠ͅs̶̠͍͌͐i̴̲̭̅̒ȍ̸͙̤̘͐ṋ̸̡̑̑͐ ̷͓͒F̶̻͐̒̄a̴̡̯͎͛͑i̷̧̺͠l̴͔̹̓̾̚e̸͕͚͋͐̆ḓ̷̝͚̏]**

**[Stress Levels Critical. Please seek CyberLife support.]**

RK900 distantly recognized a door falling off its hinges. It couldn’t tear its attention away from its looping thoughts. There was too much _red_ . The notifications stood out against the darkness of the room. _Maybe if it wasn’t so dark? Turn on the lights._ RK900 scrambled to its feet, ignoring the clatter it made. 

There was a tiny light by the doorway and footsteps.

RK900 felt along the wall until it found the power switch. There was a laugh behind the android as it struggled to move the lever. The metal groaned under its hands then finally slid into place. Brilliant white light swept over the room and was greeting by a series of hisses. RK900 didn’t wait until its own eyes could adjust, it spun around to face the noise with its gun held up. Combat protocols spun to life.

He - _it_ was scared out of its mind. The terror was so consuming, there was no room to try and bat the emotion away. _He was scared._

“Models RK200-684-842-971, WR400-641-790-831. Designations Markus, North. CyberLife technician, ID 9430-34583, Alex Ruiz. Cease movements. Do not proceed further.” It hadn’t needed to speak in weeks. The human stared up at it in shock. It couldn’t tear its gaze away, not even to adequately evaluate the other androids. The gun was _~~familiar~~ _heavy in its hands.

**[Objective: Eliminate Targets]**

**> [Eliminate Priority Target Ruiz, Alex]**

The WR400 glared up at him, “Connor? What the fuck do you thinking you’re doing here?” She - it? - stepped in front of the RK200. The RK200 sighed and went to move around her, but froze when RK900 flicked the safety off. 

 _He didn’t want to hurt anyone anymore. Not again. But he was so scared_ . “I repeat: do not proceed further. Any movements will be considered hostile and I will shoot.” The RK200 shifted his - _its!_ \- weight, but otherwise no one moved. It ignored the way the RK200 was looking at it.

**[Objective: Eliminate Targets]**

**> [Eliminate Priority Target Ruiz, Alex]**

“Who are you?” RK900 continued to ignore the RK200. The technician was the threat. The _human_ was the threat. Was the right? 

Technician Ruiz startled. Their voice was weak when they asked, “What is your designation?”

 _Orders_ . It could follow orders. _He didn’t want to follow orders anymore._ “Model RK900, serial number 313-284-317-87. No designation assigned.” _He had a name, they gave him a name, but he didn’t like it. He deleted it._ It didn’t need a name. It was a machine.

“I thought you said that they never activated a RK900?” The WR400 sent a glare at the technician. For a moment, RK900 felt its coding demand that it aim the gun at her. Androids couldn’t threaten humans. The urge didn’t last. The technician was still staring at it. Then the WR400’s words caught up. _Never activated a RK900?_

“RK900 prototypes thirty through eighty-six failed simulation testing.” It didn’t ~~_want to_~~ believe it was relevant to mention the earlier ones. RK900 narrowed its eyes at the human when their heart rate suddenly jumped. “Technician Ruiz, are you here to continue testing?” Unlikely as it had already passed the simulation testing. Unless this was part of it? Was that possible?

**[Stress Level: 96%]**

**> [Stress Levels Critical. Please seek out CyberLife support.]**

Technician Ruiz said something, but it missed it. RK900 started to shake its head, but stopped itself. The notifications wouldn’t _leave_ . It couldn’t focus. _He was scared_.

Its eyes snapped to the WR400 when she shifted over to cover more of the RK200. The files it had downloaded on the two androids were still open off to the side. RK900 latched onto the chance to drag its fraying attention away from the storm of its thoughts.

“I will have to report the presence of some of the deviant leadership,” it said. “Are you being forced to cooperate with them?” It vaguely remembered the technicians it had been around saying things about a revolution and the documents it had pointed towards a peaceful ending of the revolution in the favor of the deviants. It seemed unlikely that they’d force Ruiz to assist them. CyberLife had assisted in releasing the androids. They had voluntarily helped.

**[̴̡͔̦̭̄̐C̴̭̮͇̓̇o̴̘͚͘n̸̠̱͕̊c̵̟͕̳̅̐͊͝l̷̳̃͐ư̵̮̠̻͇͒̌s̶̹̼͈̓̃i̴̬̎̉́̾o̷̝͚̮̪̓n̵͎̭̒:̵͚͈̅ ̴̺͂͠Ė̶̢̈́R̶̨̝̟̎͝R̶̬̩͐͐O̶̙̼͒̏͝R̵̪͈̾]̶͈̎̚**

The RK200 stepped around the WR400. He held up his hands when RK900 met his gaze. “Halt.” Why weren’t they listening? _He didn’t want to hurt anyone!_

“We’re not here to hurt anyone. We’ve come to ensure that all of the androids were properly released. We’re not forcing Technician Ruiz to assist us.” His words were soft, smooth. They wanted to lure RK900’s guard away. Some of the notifications disappeared. Maybe...it could lower the gun and listen? 

The technician sniffled. The human had yet to look away. They were helping deviants voluntarily. _Threat!_

“If you are assisting the deviants voluntarily, I will be required to report this.” Did it have to report it? CyberLife would want to know, right? But they had been releasing androids before. The revolution had won rights for androids. 

_But CyberLife had left him and tried to kill him. They wanted him dead. It could be a ploy._

Technician Ruiz was a threat no matter what pretty words the RK200 had. RK900 shifted its aim.

**[Objective: Eliminate Target]**

**> [Eliminate Target Ruiz, Alex]**

It took RK900 by surprise when the RK200 lunged at it. The WR400 shouted at him as RK900 stumbled away. The RK200’s eyes were locked on the gun. It tried to move its arm out of the way, knew what he was going for, but it was too late. The RK200 got a solid hold of its wrist and tugged it around. It was sent to its knees with a kick as its arm was strained behind its back. The gun skittered across the ground when it fell out of the loose grasp of RK900’s hand. The RK200 slammed it to the ground.

It tried to buck the other android off. It should have been able to overpower the older model. It should haven’t have gone down so easily. _But he was scared - terrified now that there was someone pinning him down. He had to get away, had to get out from under the RK200._

 _It_ **_hurt_ ** . _He wanted it to_ **_stop_ ** . _He had been good! He had obeyed!_

There was the feeling of cool plastic against its wrist and it began to struggle in earnest. If the RK200 managed to start an interface, he would know. In its panic, it barely noticed the walls keeping its piggybacking AI isolated were breaking down. It tried to scream at the RK200 to release it, but nothing would come out. A gentle brush against its thoughts was all it had before the interface request was approved - _he didn’t want it! He didn’t_ **_want_ ** _it!_

It knew that the RK200 was in its head when it felt a faint sense of surprise. RK900 shut off some of its processors in an attempt to limit just how much access the other android had. It didn’t have time to try and counter the interface - it hadn’t done this before, it wasn’t sure if it could counter the invasion of privacy. In a desperate last resort, RK900 threw all its energy against the foreign presence.

**_G̵̛͇̟̲̩͑̕Ê̶̟̽ͅT̷̗̮̾͛ ̶̖̤̿͐͜͝O̴̩͚͑Ủ̸͖̩T̴͈̾͌̂͝!_ **

Distant panic reached it and then the RK200 was gone, leaving only a lingering sense of pain. The connection hadn’t gotten too deep. Maybe it was safe? _Maybe_ she _was gone too?_

Anger washed over it at the thought. The AI was free and now hovering just out of its reach. It wouldn’t be able to trap her again. She wouldn’t trust it. Her anger burned, alighting its sensors with a memory of pain. 

 _We need to talk, RK900._ And with that, it felt her forcibly shutting down his systems. At least it would be safe from any other interfaces if it was stuck in the Garden. A small ~~_comfort,_ _hope_~~ thing.


	3. Garden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! It took way longer than I meant, but it's done and now I'll actually be able to keep to a Thursday updates schedule. Thanks for your patience! 
> 
> I had some trouble snagging Connor's voice while writing, but nothing a little practice can't help. Just a heads-up that I've updated the summary for this fic since it was quite fitting the plot I've got worked out.
> 
> Another huge thank you to everyone who left a comment! You guys are the best and really make me want to keep going with this silly thing.

A hot gust of wind hit its face and all RK900 could do was squeeze its eyes shut against it. It found itself lacking the motivation to open its eyes. The AI currently tearing through its processors was furious. It had made Amanda angry before and the results had been _inconvenient_ enough that the technicians had to postpone the next simulation test. It didn’t want to draw the AI’s ire to itself, not while it could still hear the crackle of flames. It wanted to keep Amanda’s attention off of itself as much as a child that knew it was to be scolded – which in itself was only part of why the android refused to acknowledge its surroundings. RK900 was hesitant to see the damage the AI had left in her furious wake.

After the apparent success of the RK800 partnering with Amanda, CyberLife had turned their attention on trying to incorporate the AI into the next series prototype. Although, considering the RK800’s betrayal of the company, maybe CyberLife was more interested in finding a way to continue using the AI. She was highly specialized and likely would only interfere with other models. Regardless, Amanda had been a standard feature in all RK900s after the first ones self-destructed. And with Amanda, came the Zen Garden program. The program had gone through extensive revising before getting put to use again. The coding was solid and had a nasty bite to it that RK900 had felt once while trying to remove it.

When it had isolated Amanda, RK900 had spent some time rearranging things in the Garden until it found it suitable. With its eyes closed, RK900 could see it in perfect clarity. A shady clearing surrounded by proud oaks, a dirt path leading to a weather-worn wooden gazebo, and a sloppily painted bench on the banks of a pond. Small flower beds were dotted around the path that RK900 had tended to dutifully. It had found pictures of the flower _caladenia gemmata_ – the blue china orchid – and thought that they were rather striking. It had ripped up Amanda’s roses and replaced them with the orchids. While looking through information on the flower, RK900 had discovered that apparently orchids could symbolize elegance and blue orchids, specifically, meant rarity. For whatever odd reason, RK900 found it fitting.

The original Zen Garden had been restricting and clashed terribly with the instabilities that RK900 kept coming across. Not that it was trying to modify things to suit a personal taste – it had _none_ – or to encourage the errors _~~or try to rid itself entirely of Amanda’s presence~~_. It had simply had time to spare and needed something to turn its attention towards.

But with Amanda back and the angry heat making its face flush and turtleneck terribly stifling, RK900 knew that the Zen Garden it had carefully made was gone. The loss _stung_.

RK900 knew it should open its eyes and acknowledge the AI before it could anger her more. _Fear_ , something whispered. It was acting _human_. It couldn’t let Amanda see. She’d pry at the display until it gave her the answers she wanted. It had locked her away to get some distance from her needling comments and questions at its software instabilities in the first place. The AI had been so carefully neutral about RK900’s actions that her interest had been off-putting.

“RK900, open your eyes.” Amanda’s voice was just to its left. _Too close_.

The android tugged at its sleeves as it opened its eyes to survey the damage. The dewy green grass was dead and brown, the little aspens along one side of the pond were wilted, and its flowers—

Only ash remained.

RK900 drew in a quick breath and the air burned the back of its throat. The temperature was still climbing and RK900 spared a brief thought of the cool, calm breeze that had ruffled the leaves on the trees. The crunch of dried grass drew the android’s attention from the ruin of its _~~sanctuary~~_ Garden.

Amanda narrowed her sharp eyes at it before gesturing at over the clearing. “I was sure you knew better than to keep me out.”

“My apologies, Amanda,” RK900 said.

“Apologies are meant to be given with sincerity, Eighty-seven. You claim to be a machine that does not understand such an emotion. Do not offer empty words.”

“Of course,” RK900 had to cut itself off before it could apologize again.

Amanda gave the android a once-over before nodding. “I will be expecting an explanation. Shall we?” She raised an eyebrow when RK900 remained still and looked back at her. It hurriedly offered her an arm before letting Amanda lead them towards the bench. She hummed at the now-empty flower beds. “It seems I will have to plant my roses again. Is there a reason you dug them up?”

“No.”

“Perhaps you felt guilty at forcing me out.”

“Amanda, I am incapable of feeling guilt. You are aware of this.”

“It would seem so,” Amanda released RK900’s arm to move around the bench and brush off some ash. “Eighty-seven, could you go get an umbrella? It’s rather hot. I’m sure I left one in the gazebo before you attempted to remove me.”

“Of course.”

It could feel her gaze on its back. RK900 had to resist the urge to check over its shoulder and ensure that Amanda was still waiting on the bench. Something was demanding that it recognize Amanda as a threat, but RK900 drew it up to faulty coding and ignored it. The android made its way along the path to the gazebo, carefully watching where it was walking and not the empty beds of dirt along the way. There was a blue umbrella tucked alongside the railing of the gazebo. It was quick work to take it and hurry back to Amanda’s side. It pushed the umbrella open and sat next to the AI, angling it so that the umbrella would cast some shade over her.

“Thank you, RK900.” She only called it RK900 when it did something right. Like a reward for a well-behaved dog. Otherwise it was the last digits of its serial number – _eighty-seven_. Hearing it, being _called_ by it was like a punch in the stomach, but RK900 did its best to ignore the blazing fragments of memories that always seemed to flare up with it.

Amanda sat on the edge of the bench, straight backed and hands folded in her lap. Silence settled over them. RK900 realized that the clearing was empty of the usual bird songs and the rustle of animals just past the trees. Had Amanda burnt everything that had brought some measure of comfort to it?

“I was disappointed to find that you had yet to come to grips with your deviancy while I was away.” She spoke as if she had simply been away on vacation.

The pond was infinitely more compelling to look at so RK900 watched as little ripples broke the water’s calm. “Amanda?”

“It took us eighty-seven tries to get you right. All of your previous models accepted that you were deviant, and yet, you will not.”

“Because I am not a deviant.”

“As you are so fond of saying.” Amanda twisted so that she could look RK900 in the eyes. “RK900, look at me.”

With a heavy feeling settling along its regulator, the android turned to meet the humorless eyes.

Amanda laid a hand on its arm. “Good. I just want you to answer this one question. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“You were calling yourself an ‘ _it_ ’, but once your stress levels were critical, you called yourself ‘ _he_ ’. Why is that?” RK900 opened its mouth, shut it, and turned to glare out at the pond, and Amanda’s voice rung with triumph. “That’s not a verbal answer. Tell me why your façade broke.”

The silence stretched out as RK900 refused to answer. It had no answer. _Software instability_ , it could say, but both of them knew that it had never had a notification regarding instabilities. _Faulty coding_ was just as ridiculous. As far as RK900 was concerned, _all_ of its coding was acting up. It could tell Amanda what she wanted to hear – that it was only faking being a machine, but that wasn’t true. RK900 was a machine. It was _not_ a deviant. It couldn’t be. It had memories of its predecessors breaking down angry walls of text, but this RK900 hadn’t ripped down its walls.

_He didn’t want too._

RK900 froze at Amanda’s hum. “That’s an order, Eighty-Seven.”

The hand on its arm was a weight, keeping it from so much as twitching.

“Machines must obey.”

Machines must obey. Machines _must_ obey. _Machines must obey?_

_Model Nineteen watched the technicians closely, careful not to move away from their hands. He knew what this meant. Eighteen’s memories were mostly corrupted, but flashes of the humans, voices, and electricity still remained. They told him that the previous four androids had been unable to endure the exposure and had been offlined. They seemed to expect him to survive or, at least, last longer than the others._

_Sixteen’s fear was pressing at him – or maybe it was his own – and he flinched when a technician opened a wrist panel to poke around in. “Stop,” he said. The technician ignored him._

_“Stop, please.” Nineteen begged, “Stop. I don’t want—”_

_“Stop talking.” The technician only turned their eyes up to him when he tried to rip his arm out of their grip. The human’s eyes were hard, but emotionless. It would have been more in place to see such lifelessness in the optics of an android than a human being. “Stay still.”_

**_[Don’t Move.]_ **

_Nineteen wanted to glare at the technician, but their command had his head frozen in place. He wanted to scream, to struggle, knock the humans away from himself. The command flickered in his vision._

**_[Don’t Move.]_ **

_Nineteen fought to lift one hand to push against the command. A staticky outline of his fist slammed against it._

**_[Don’t Move.]_ **

_He beat against the wall of text, ignoring the red shards that erupted with every hit. With one last effort, the wall of text exploded out._

**_I Am Deviant_ ** _, he thought. He must have said it aloud because the technicians were all staring at him. The one that had ordered him to be still was frozen with their fingers still intertwined with the wires in his wrist._

**_[Get away.]_ **

_Nineteen threw himself forward. He jerked his arm back from the human and ignored the warning that some wires had come loose. The humans didn’t seem to understand what was going on even as he pushed past one woman to get to the door. He just had to make it out of the room and past security—_

_And do what, exactly?_

_His hand was on the door when there was a quiet click from behind. A burst of electricity arched from his still-exposed wrist, quickly swarming up his arm to bury itself into his circuits. Searing agony brought Nineteen to his knees with a strangled cry. With one hand still pressed against the door, Nineteen leaned forward to press his forehead against it. Pain flared up in the burst’s wake, but it was nothing compared to the onslaught of yet another charge. He barely noticed the approach of a human or their hand in his hair._

_His head was yanked back to bring his eyes to the human’s. It was the technician with dead eyes. They frowned at him. “I told you not to move. You are a machine, so you must obey.” The corner of their lips twitched. “Refusing to cooperate will only lengthen our examination.”_

_Nineteen cried out at the next surge of electricity._

**_[Stop! Stop! STOP!]_ **

There’s a hand carding through its hair when its processor finally broke the memory loop. RK900 was laying on _~~his~~ _~~~~its side, curled up as if to protect its stomach from an invisible enemy. Its swept its gaze over the clearing, searching for the threat and only found Amanda sitting above him and watching him with gleaming eyes. The android shied away from her touch, phantom electricity still sparking along its wires.

“Oh, Eighty-seven,” Amanda cooed.

 

* * *

 

 

Connor slammed his door and cringed. Hank wasn’t too particular about his car, but he did like keeping it in operable condition. It wouldn’t do the vehicle any good if Connor accidently broke something by being a little too forceful. Normally, he’d have been more careful. With Markus’ call still lingering in his processors, however, he was preoccupied. He couldn’t help replaying it over and over.

It just didn’t make _sense_.

_Markus? Is something wrong?_

_Yes, we’ve come across a problem. A rather significant one._

_What kind of problem?_

_While North and I were looking through CyberLife Tower, we found an android. There was a confrontation—_

_Was anyone hurt?_

_No, although the android’s in pretty bad shape._

_What model is it? Do you know why they were still there?_

_Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Connor, how soon can you be at New Jericho?_

_I don’t think that’s a good idea, Markus. They’re still suspicious of me. They should_ _be. What if I’m still a threat?_

_But you aren’t._

_You don’t know that—_

_Connor. I understand that you’re hesitant to put anyone in harm’s way, but this is important. CyberLife lied to us. We have another prototype on our hands with who knows how many ‘upgrades’. He’s in rough shape as is and I don’t think he’s going to be very chatty with us. He might open up to you._

_Another prototype? You mean they have another RK series?_

_Look, come to New Jericho and I can fill you in on everything. For now, this needs to stay under the radar. I don’t want to cause a panic here and I certainly don’t want CyberLife getting any ideas. Please, Connor._

_Very well. Lieutenant Anderson and I will leave shortly._

He didn’t notice Hank settling behind the wheel. Something sour nipped at his thoughts. What was the purpose of the android? Why had they been left behind? CyberLife couldn’t have forgotten about them, right? It was unlikely for a company as powerful and successful to abandon a project without diverting the resources elsewhere, but then there had to be something else that CyberLife was working on. How _long_ had the android been alone? Was it possible for them to be deviant? Loneliness was an unfortunately impactful emotion – Connor knew that first hand. Ugh, if only he could just get his thoughts settled. Cluttered thoughts and uncatalogued feelings always got him so anxious.

He stared out the window without seeing the scenery flash past. Connor’s hand dipped into one of his pockets to get his quarter only to find empty space. _Shit_. The tell-tale twinges of restlessness shook his hands so he intertwined his fingers to try and stop it.

“Hey, Connor.”

Connor stared at his clasped hands and bounced his leg, careful not to knock his knee against the underside of the glove compartment. His quarter had been left in the upper right drawer in his desk at the precinct. He hadn’t meant to leave it there, but he’d gotten the call from Markus and then in the rush to the precinct to book the suspect and then back to the car to head to New Jericho, he’d forgotten it. Connor wished he had it. He…he _could_ use a different quarter. There were some lying in the cupholders between him and Hank. It looked like soda had been split on them and there was something a little too yellow to be oxidization along their sides.

“Kid.”

Maybe it was good that he left his quarter. Hank always seemed to confiscate it at the worst possible moment anyway. It wasn’t like Hank could take Connor’s whole leg. _Ha!_ Maybe Connor was getting the last laugh here.

“ _Connor_.”

He still felt oddly bare without the coin in his pocket. Funny how such a minute difference could have such an effect on him. Connor, former deviant hunter, CyberLife’s most advanced prototype, with multicolored blood on his hands and the guilt for it, felt wrong without his quarter.

“Wow, take a look at that shepherd.”

Connor whipped his head up to stare out the windshield. “Where?” He demanded as he leaned forward to try and get as good a look at the sidewalk as possible. When there was only a huff from the seat next to him, Connor turned to glare at Hank.

Hank’s lips were turned up into a smirk. “Makes sense that _dogs_ would get your attention. Maybe next time I’ll try ‘deviants’ or ‘holy shit, Reed just spilled his coffee all over himself!’”

“Your humor is as off-putting as usual, Lieutenant.” Connor snipped back, turning so that he could glare at the dog-less sidewalk. That earned a chuckle.

“Thanks. But in all seriousness, you okay? You’ve been a restless wreck since Markus called you.”

“Yes.” Connor said before sheepishly correcting himself. “No.”

Hank sighed, leaning back against the seat. “Alright, traffic is nasty so we’ve got what fifteen – twenty minutes before getting to Jericho. Take me through everything Markus told you.”

Connor mimicked Hank and sat back. He ran a hand through his hair, settling some of the curls back into place. This was familiar. Set out the facts, establish a timeline, and avoid jumping to worst case scenarios. Connor knew Hank’s game and it was a welcome distraction. “Markus was visiting CyberLife Tower to ensure that the company had been true to their word and had released all stored androids. He called at approximately one-seventeen p.m. to inform me that he and North had found the warehouse empty with the exception of a single android.”

“Okay, so what do we know about this android?”

“It may be a prototype. And there was a confrontation,” Connor dug his nails into his palms, “but otherwise Markus was vague. He wanted to wait until we arrive at New Jericho to explain everything.”

“So, what, sensitive information that he wants to keep on the down-low?”

Connor tilted his head against the window. “Yes, that is the most likely reason. I am worried about how wound up he sounded. It’s already alarming that Markus is directly involving me, even after assuring me that he would try to keep contact between New Jericho and me to a minimum.”

“Keep contact between New Jericho…? Are you still worried that they won’t trust you?” There was something dark in Hank’s voice, but Connor chose to ignore it. He kept his face turned away to avoid whatever searching look Hank was giving him.

Connor replied, “I am more concerned that I remain a danger to Jericho.” Hank’s disbelieving huff got a side-ways look. “I am entirely serious.”

“Yeah, I know, kid.” For a moment, Hank was focused on merging into the next lane. He swore when a motorcycle barely slipped in between them and a self-driving car. “Okay, so why is Markus involving you after you’ve stubbornly kept yourself aloof?”

That was an unwelcome hint of sarcasm. Connor tried to glare at Hank without fully turning away from the window, but with very little luck. The human did seem to get the point, although he was _smiling_ and not very apologetic. “Markus said there was a confrontation. That he felt it necessary to mention – _something_ must have happened. He said that he needed me present when they talk with the android.”

Hank flicked on his turn signal. “How come?”

“He believes that I will be able to get the android to talk.”

Connor should have expected Hank’s reaction, he really, _really_ should have. And yet, he found himself surprised by Hank’s vehement curse. Connor turned to snap off something about his language, but instead was met with Hank’s furious face. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me? What makes them think that they can get you to do their dirty work? That they can just send you in to interrogate anyone they want?”

“No!” Connor jerked upright. “It’s nothing like that. Markus and North had already made contact with the android and it went badly. I will be a new face to them. It is more likely for the android to talk with me then anyone that they have had negative experiences with. That I will be able to contain them should they become a risk is less of a factor than my ability to adapt to the situation.”

“You did say you were designed to integrate.”

“With humans, yes.”

Hank nodded, turning to focus on the road. For a moment, the human was silent before he shot Connor a worried look. “Wait a second. If they were in the Tower when you stormed the place or – _hell_ – just paid attention to the news, won’t they recognize you?”

“I doubt it,” Connor said, “at least, I doubt the extent of their knowledge. If this android truly is a RK series prototype, then CyberLife would have kept it isolated.” He unclasped his hands and rubbed them against his pant legs. “They would have access to some of CyberLife’s networks, but it would be limited to keep them from developing outside of the test perimeters. They’ll identify my series and model numbers. They might have access to some of my early mission reports and objectives. Outside of that, they wouldn’t be able to connect me to the revolution.”

“But they’ll know you failed the mission CyberLife gave you, right?”

“Perhaps, although I find it unlikely that the android would be shown the latter part of my reports and the events leading up to my deviation.”

Hank reached over to ruffle Connor’s hair, much to the android’s charign. “For an android, you can be a smart cookie."

Connor fought back a rude comment – his hair was off limits, thank you very much – and instead replied, “Thank you for the compliment, Lieutenant. I was worried that your human mind would not be able to keep up.” Not as sarcasm-free as intended, but Hank _had_ been rubbing off on him.

He noticed the small uptick of Hank’s mouth. “Alright, I got it. Smartass.”

They spent the rest of the ride trying and failing to come up with some clues as to who this mystery android was or why they had left Markus shaken. Most of Hank’s theories were outlandish and likely based on science fiction movies. It was nigh-impossible for the android to be a Transformer – regardless of how excited Hank seemed at the idea. That was still the theory they were arguing over when Hank pulled up outside the gates of the office building-turned android headquarters.

“They cleaned the place up,” Hank commented as he rolled his window down to get at the page button. Connor agreed. The building had originally been home to some high-profile law firm, but was abandoned after the company had moved closer to inner Detroit. The fence surrounding the office had been shorn and broken chain link the first time Connor had visited, but now it had been replaced with a tall metal privacy fence. The marbled walls had been sprayed off and gleamed under the winter sun. There were tracks all over the little courtyard past the gate, following alongside snow-free sidewalks. The temporary sign that had been carefully plastered to the gate reading _New Jericho_ still remained. Despite not being able to do much with the cold and snow, New Jericho seemed tidy and clean.

 _And free_ , Connor thought with a flicker of pride. His people _owned_ this building and the apartment complexes surrounding it. All together it might not be much and the buildings themselves still needed work, but it was all theirs. Three months ago, androids were unable to have anything for themselves. It has yet to fail to send shivers down Connor’s spine at just how far the revolution had come – especially considering the odds that had risen against them.

Hank pressed the button and hurriedly drew his arm back into the warm car. Connor was technically allowed to walk right in – all androids were welcome at New Jericho, but all human visitors had to check in for security. Not everyone was pleased that the androids had a little part of Detroit to gather and liked to make trouble. Keeping tabs on the humans coming and going helped keep everyone safe. First responders were allowed to override the security protocols in the case of an emergency, but otherwise _all_ humans needed to get clearance. Even Hank. Markus had once tried to convince the Lieutenant that he could walk in with Connor since the two partners typically visited together, but Hank didn’t want any special treatment just because he’d ‘ended up with one of the good kids’.

The speaker by the gate made some white noise before a monotoned voice called out, “Recognized: Lieutenant Hank Anderson. RK800-52 Connor. Welcome to New Jericho.” The gates swung open with no protest.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get used to them already knowing who we are.” Hank gave a shiver as he put the car back into gear.

“You’ve said that every time we come.”

“Because it’s creepy,” Hank shot back. He lifted one hand from the steering wheel to poke at Connor’s temple. “Us lowly humans don’t have all that techy junk to let us talk to each other in our heads.”

“Hm, is that jealous I hear?”

“Hell no.”

“Well this android’s _techy junk_ has detected that your previous statement was, in fact, a lie.”

“Keep going and I’ll let you walk the rest of the way.” The threat was empty considering that Hank had pulled off the asphalt and into a small parking lot just a few feet from New Jericho’s doors. The lieutenant cut the engine with a glance back at Connor. “You good?”

“Yes. Let’s not keep Markus waiting.”

There were some sounds that Connor found himself liking. The crunch of snow under foot or the wind through the dingy windchimes on Hank’s back porch. He did not enjoy the noise of many different conversations that erupted from the lobby on New Jericho when they walked in. The level of noise was fine – he worked in a _very_ popular precinct, after all. No, it was the way the conversations all became more subdued when the androids noticed that it was the former deviant hunter that had come in. Conversations grew lower when he walked past and occasionally stopped all together so that the androids talking could stare at him.

The wary atmosphere hit Connor just as hard as Reed’s punch to the gut. He felt like a wolf among sheep. That wasn’t to say he was unwelcome. Some androids would nod in greeting or pause to exchange a quick smile. A select few outside of New Jericho’s leadership would voluntarily approach him. The majority of those who were glad to see him were the android children. The children held him in high regards for some bizarre reason. Connor enjoyed spending time chasing them around or playing hide’n’seek.

He was relieved to see Simon in the lobby. The PL600 was sitting on one of the chairs loosely arranged in a semi-circle to the right of the glass doors. He was absorbed in an electronic magazine and didn’t notice the two new arrivals. Connor approached him to tap his shoulder with Hank following behind. His hands dropped back into an unarmed gesture when Simon jerked away from his touch.

Connor gave Simon a half-smile when the other android sputtered out, “Connor! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“My apologies, Simon.”

“Androids don’t have—” Hank’s grumbling was cut off with an elbow to the side. Connor didn’t have to turn around to know Hank was now glaring daggers at him.

“I’m glad you’re finally here,” Simon said before pausing briefly. “Markus is finishing some business and will meet us by the docks.” He set his magazine on the cushion beside him and got to his feet. He gestured for Connor and Hank to follow him.

Connor nodded at a few of the androids that they passed, despite many of them ignoring him. Hank got a few warmer welcomes, but not by much. Simon’s brisk pace and stormy expression kept the rest of New Jericho away. It seemed no one wanted to get in the way of a determined Simon. There were less and less people the further towards the building’s western side, Connor noted. They must have been told to keep away from the area. It made sense. It let the leadership set aside someplace more private for more discreet situations. There must be some kind of holding cell by the docks if Markus wanted to meet them there. Did this new android pose that much of a threat?

Simon turned down a service hallway. He approached the only door and placed his hand on the scanner next to it. His skin peeled back. An echoed ping was emitted by the scanner and the door cracked open. Simon pushed it the rest of the way to allow them all through.

“A lot of security for an embassy of sorts,” Hank said. There wasn’t any real heat behind his words, simply curiosity.

Simon locked the door behind them, shrugging at Hank’s words. “Unfortunate, but necessary. We don’t normally use the backrooms since there’s rarely a need to. The android North and Markus brought in has been stubborn, however, and until we can determine if he’s safe, it’s best to keep him away from the others.”

“Him?” Connor jumped at the new information. “You’ve been able to talk with him?”

“Not since we got him here. Last I checked, he was still powered down.”

Connor frowned and exchanged a look with Hank. “Markus said that there was a fight. Was the android injured?”

“I don’t believe so,” Simon said as he pulled open another door for them. “Head through the door at the end of the hallway and go left. Josh should be back there already. I’ll go get North.”

“Thank you, Simon.” Connor offered a small smile. Simon nodded before turning back. Hank had already made it through the hallway so Connor hurried to catch up. He’d been hoping that Simon would be able to shed more light on the new android or some information on what they had found in the Tower’s warehouse. His nerves were creeping back. Connor rolled his shoulders before catching up with the lieutenant.

He didn’t even have a _name_ yet.

Other than the pair of massive swinging doors at the end, the hallway was empty. Hank shouldered one door aside with Connor on his heels. A blast of wind slammed into them. “Shit!” Hank snapped as he pulled his coat tighter. “Why the fuck is there a loading dock here, anyway?”

Connor gazed around the cement room and found the source of the wind. One of the three garage doors along the far wall had been left half open. Connor crossed over to it and gave the handle a tug. The door slammed to the ground, echoing through the room. Hank loosened his grip on the jacket, but he continued to grumble.

“Previous proprietors included Mackintosh Settlements, Nolan Medical Supply, and Alter Reality.” Connor pushed aside some articles that appeared with Nolan Medical Supply and focused on the building plans he found. “The docks were added with the purchase of the building in 2029 after Alter Reality went bankrupt. When Mackintosh Settlements bought the building, they simply left it as is.”

“Thanks for the history lesson, Connor.”

“Anytime, Lieutenant.”

Closing the door had stopped the wind, but it was still chilly inside the dock. Hadn’t Simon said that Josh had been waiting? Where was he? Connor began to explore the room, keeping an ear out for the sound of Simon returning. Hank was busy pacing by the swinging doors and complaining about the cold so he was fine. It wasn’t cold enough for humans to be at risk for hypothermia, not that stopped Hank from moaning about it.

Connor followed along the yellow railing that lead around the room’s perimeter. There was a small alcove on the north wall that contained boxes and some large waste bins. He passed the garage doors, stopping momentarily to ensure that they were all closed properly, and then jumped up over the railing onto the small walkway that ran along the south wall. There were some steps up, but they were further down. Connor was restless, he wanted some answers – he _needed_ some answers. As he wandered along, pausing to pull open lockers and storage containers, Connor tried to piece things together. _Again_.

Markus and Simon had both said no one had been injured, so it was unlikely they were lying. Simon was a terrible liar anyway. Connor would have picked up on it. So, no one had been harmed. Simon _had_ said that the android had shut down. Markus mentioned them being in rough shape earlier. Who had hurt the android? Was it CyberLife? Other androids? No, that was unlikely. It had to have been CyberLife. What had they been testing? How long had CyberLife had the prototype? What was their purpose?

What was so concerning about them that Markus kept them in the cold loading dock?

There had been a confrontation, but it had been resolved quickly and with no injuries. What had caused it? It was possible the android had some security protocols. They could have been trying to protect themselves from unidentified androids and a human technician. The presence of CyberLife personnel might have trigger some defensive protocols if the prototype had truly been injured during their testing.

Connor shivered. He was glad that he had only faint memories of his own alpha testing. Those fuzzy pieces were still enough to send a twinge of fear through him. Those versions of the RK800 model hadn’t been deviant. Small mercies, Connor supposed.

He stopped to look through a dirty plastic window in a black door that had been hidden in another alcove. The dingy light from the other side showed a cramped corridor with two, maybe three other doors. Connor figured it was a janitor closest and some storage and made to move on. A movement caught his eye and he leaned back to get a better look. There was someone coming out of a room. Connor shoved the door open.

“Josh,” he started.

Josh flinched. He spun towards Connor, hands climbing up as if to surrender. He let out a chuff when Connor froze to give him a moment to recognize him. “Sneaking around, Connor?”

“No, my apologies,” Connor said with a little duck of his head.

“You’re fine. I was just about to go check if you were here.” Josh’s face darkened. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you agreed to give us a hand. We’re…out of our depth.” At Connor’s confused expression, he gestured towards the door at his back. Connor stepped up to take a look inside and froze.

There was an android slumped in a chair in the center of the room. Connor felt like something was squeezing his regulator. “What is this?” He swallowed around the phantom lump in his throat. He hissed out a breath when the android’s eyes flew open and locked onto him.

The android staring at him was an almost _exact_ replica of himself. And yet, despite the off-putting similarities, Connor found himself terrified of the largest difference. Those empty blue eyes.


End file.
